Putting a record on the needles
October 3, 2016 2:30 PM Subscribe
Over the previous weeks, cyber espionage group Fancy Bears has been releasing confidential WADA documents allegedly exposing a "legal" side to performance-enhancing drugs.
Believed to be payback for the Russian athletics ban from the Rio Olympics after the endemic, state sanctioned PED abuse in Russia (previously), the leak (allegedly by the same group that hacked the DNC) targets Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs), a "special permission to use a prohibited substance or method for a legitimate medical condition", and caught many athletes and federations by surprise. While the use of TUEs is legitimate and the IOC has quickly backed the innocence of the named athletes and president Thomas Bach called it an "attempt to smear innocent athletes" while former Australian ADA chief Richard Ings calls them "totally normal", they are not without controversy, as the system in place is considered to be ripe to abuse, particularly with prescriptions for asthma and ADHD. This leak also occurs during a tug of war between the IOC and WADA following the ban of Russian athletes in the games.
Without much surprise, it's in cycling the issue is being more openly discussed. While Chris Froome has publicly admitted the use of steroids to treat asthma under a TUE (for which he was criticized), Bradley Wiggins has denied in his biography ever being given shots, something that was now proven false, having received three shots of Triamcinolone Acetonide (a powerful corticosteroid used to treat allergies) before grand tours, and even notorious Lance Armstrong enabler and former UCI president Pat McQuaid called out Sky Team's "hypocrisy" . Meanwhile, while Froome's comments where he urged the UCI to act on TUE abuse may be seen as criticism of his own team and frenemy Wiggins, Tom Dumoulin (Team Giant-Alpecin/Dutch silver medalist in the Rio Men's TT) has openly questioned his story, and also called for a more open TUE system, even at the expense of patient confidentiality. Less radical is anti sports corruption activist David Larkin, who suggests a system where the list of TUEs is public but medical details kept private.
Believed to be payback for the Russian athletics ban from the Rio Olympics after the endemic, state sanctioned PED abuse in Russia (previously), the leak (allegedly by the same group that hacked the DNC) targets Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs), a "special permission to use a prohibited substance or method for a legitimate medical condition", and caught many athletes and federations by surprise. While the use of TUEs is legitimate and the IOC has quickly backed the innocence of the named athletes and president Thomas Bach called it an "attempt to smear innocent athletes" while former Australian ADA chief Richard Ings calls them "totally normal", they are not without controversy, as the system in place is considered to be ripe to abuse, particularly with prescriptions for asthma and ADHD. This leak also occurs during a tug of war between the IOC and WADA following the ban of Russian athletes in the games.
Without much surprise, it's in cycling the issue is being more openly discussed. While Chris Froome has publicly admitted the use of steroids to treat asthma under a TUE (for which he was criticized), Bradley Wiggins has denied in his biography ever being given shots, something that was now proven false, having received three shots of Triamcinolone Acetonide (a powerful corticosteroid used to treat allergies) before grand tours, and even notorious Lance Armstrong enabler and former UCI president Pat McQuaid called out Sky Team's "hypocrisy" . Meanwhile, while Froome's comments where he urged the UCI to act on TUE abuse may be seen as criticism of his own team and frenemy Wiggins, Tom Dumoulin (Team Giant-Alpecin/Dutch silver medalist in the Rio Men's TT) has openly questioned his story, and also called for a more open TUE system, even at the expense of patient confidentiality. Less radical is anti sports corruption activist David Larkin, who suggests a system where the list of TUEs is public but medical details kept private.
The extreme demands of pro cycling batter your lungs and immune system. You develop issues that require anti-asthma drugs or other steroids; you then have a choice of either effectively doping or dropping out. We could trust doctors to only prescribe these things when absolutely necessary, but "trusting doctors" just seems like a laughable concept given cycling history. We could trust the UCI and WADA to police these things but they have neither the history nor the budgets to be left alone with these things.
Not sure what the solution is, to be honest.
don't all these TUE revelations just show that the Russians too could have doped legally if only they had taken the same steps as everyone else?
The UCI is never going to grant a TUE to every Russian athlete. Honestly I think they are likely doing the best they can under the circumstances. And they are sticklers for the rules; when Simon Yates' doctor forgot to apply for a TUE, he was barred from this year's Tour de France.
posted by selfnoise at 2:47 PM on October 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
Not sure what the solution is, to be honest.
don't all these TUE revelations just show that the Russians too could have doped legally if only they had taken the same steps as everyone else?
The UCI is never going to grant a TUE to every Russian athlete. Honestly I think they are likely doing the best they can under the circumstances. And they are sticklers for the rules; when Simon Yates' doctor forgot to apply for a TUE, he was barred from this year's Tour de France.
posted by selfnoise at 2:47 PM on October 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
Was everyone else as creeped out as me when they chose to target black female athletes right off the bat?
posted by phooky at 6:31 PM on October 3, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by phooky at 6:31 PM on October 3, 2016 [9 favorites]
I'l start watching the Olympics if we went all-in in the 'performance enhancing drugs' and biological and cybernetic augmentations. Instead of celebrating pure physical skill we'd celebrate the intelligence of the people who can build normal humans into superhumans, who use every cognitive and technological trick to do awesome feats.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 6:50 PM on October 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 6:50 PM on October 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
Forgive me if I get this wrong, but there are a lot of reports and some of them don't seem to be citing their sources clearly.
Sometime in the week before 23 August, WADA was subject to a phishing attack. Threat Connect was called in to analyze the attack, and linked it to the group known as APT28, Fancy Bear, or The Sofacy Group. The determination was based on the registration and hosting of domains used in the attack, rather than analysis of the software tools employed.
This group has been linked fairly conclusively to other major attacks, and shows strong signs of being nation-state supported and based in Russia. Use of, and access to, a consistent set of tools and techniques suggests that this group has been involved in attacks for at least 10 years.
The names that are assigned to vulnerabilities and threat actors--like Heartbleed, ShellShock, Equation Group, and Fancy Bear--come from the consultant teams that research them and are, bluntly, mostly marketing .
On 1 Sept some organization registered fancybear.net, and within a few days a twitter account. At this point there was no clear reason to believe that either one was actually associated with the (presumed Russian government) group that had been identified as the attacker in this and the previous cases. Could just as well have been script kiddies who though the name and the idea sounded bad-ass
However, in 15 September the twitter account began to be used to disclose confidential WADA data. Either this data is actually the product of the attack, or it comes from another party using news of the attack and the link to APT28 as camouflage for their own activities. The later is certainly possible, and there are oddities in the published sites that make that seem more plausible.
But the simpler scenario seems to be the more likely: WADA really was hacked by the same state actor that penetrated the Bundestag and the DNC, but this time, they not only went public directly, but they did so under the name that third parties had coined to identify them, a name that was very publicly linked to the Russian government.
If both the hack and the release of information really are APT 28, and APT 28 really is tightly tied to the Russian GRU, this public claiming of credit is an interesting and worrisome development.
posted by CHoldredge at 7:05 PM on October 3, 2016 [4 favorites]
Sometime in the week before 23 August, WADA was subject to a phishing attack. Threat Connect was called in to analyze the attack, and linked it to the group known as APT28, Fancy Bear, or The Sofacy Group. The determination was based on the registration and hosting of domains used in the attack, rather than analysis of the software tools employed.
This group has been linked fairly conclusively to other major attacks, and shows strong signs of being nation-state supported and based in Russia. Use of, and access to, a consistent set of tools and techniques suggests that this group has been involved in attacks for at least 10 years.
The names that are assigned to vulnerabilities and threat actors--like Heartbleed, ShellShock, Equation Group, and Fancy Bear--come from the consultant teams that research them and are, bluntly, mostly marketing .
On 1 Sept some organization registered fancybear.net, and within a few days a twitter account. At this point there was no clear reason to believe that either one was actually associated with the (presumed Russian government) group that had been identified as the attacker in this and the previous cases. Could just as well have been script kiddies who though the name and the idea sounded bad-ass
However, in 15 September the twitter account began to be used to disclose confidential WADA data. Either this data is actually the product of the attack, or it comes from another party using news of the attack and the link to APT28 as camouflage for their own activities. The later is certainly possible, and there are oddities in the published sites that make that seem more plausible.
But the simpler scenario seems to be the more likely: WADA really was hacked by the same state actor that penetrated the Bundestag and the DNC, but this time, they not only went public directly, but they did so under the name that third parties had coined to identify them, a name that was very publicly linked to the Russian government.
If both the hack and the release of information really are APT 28, and APT 28 really is tightly tied to the Russian GRU, this public claiming of credit is an interesting and worrisome development.
posted by CHoldredge at 7:05 PM on October 3, 2016 [4 favorites]
Charlemagne in Sweatpants -
That was basically tried in the 1990s. Mainly it killed young desperate people.
posted by entropone at 7:25 PM on October 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
That was basically tried in the 1990s. Mainly it killed young desperate people.
posted by entropone at 7:25 PM on October 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
That was basically tried in the 1990s. Mainly it killed young desperate people.
Doesn't 'normal' sport do that too? If people want to put their bodies and minds on the line for glory and... whatever else they get out of sport, risking concussions and brain damage and all that, might as well go all the way and turn them into biogentetically enhanced guinea pigs.
We should probably figure out how to get IRL Rocket League happening too.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 7:26 PM on October 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
Doesn't 'normal' sport do that too? If people want to put their bodies and minds on the line for glory and... whatever else they get out of sport, risking concussions and brain damage and all that, might as well go all the way and turn them into biogentetically enhanced guinea pigs.
We should probably figure out how to get IRL Rocket League happening too.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 7:26 PM on October 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'l start watching the Olympics if we went all-in in the 'performance enhancing drugs' and biological and cybernetic augmentations. Instead of celebrating pure physical skill we'd celebrate the intelligence of the people who can build normal humans into superhumans, who use every cognitive and technological trick to do awesome feats.
It worked so well for the NFL!
posted by srboisvert at 8:17 PM on October 3, 2016
It worked so well for the NFL!
posted by srboisvert at 8:17 PM on October 3, 2016
l start watching the Olympics if we went all-in in the 'performance enhancing drugs' and biological and cybernetic augmentations.
Buddy you should read testimony from former soviet bloc athletes about how the steroids and medications have ruined their bodies and their lives. I wouldn't be too glib about it.
posted by smoke at 10:24 PM on October 3, 2016 [7 favorites]
Buddy you should read testimony from former soviet bloc athletes about how the steroids and medications have ruined their bodies and their lives. I wouldn't be too glib about it.
posted by smoke at 10:24 PM on October 3, 2016 [7 favorites]
Doesn't 'normal' sport do that too? If people want to put their bodies and minds on the line for glory and... whatever else they get out of sport, risking concussions and brain damage and all that, might as well go all the way and turn them into biogentetically enhanced guinea pigs.
So since there's a bad thing, let's make it worse?
Most people are trying to ensure that athletes are healthy, especially since there's a pipeline filled with vulnerable young people who are often willing to sacrifice their long-term health for a short-term shot at fame, a livelihood, their dream, etc. That's a clearly dangerous situation that's just ripe for exploitation, and one worth protecting people from.
In talks like this there's always the "let's just having a doping league" suggestion as if it's novel. Most sports don't, for very good reasons, and some that have come the closest - like cycling, with its 2ish decades of institutionalized ignorance - are rebounding the furthest from it.
posted by entropone at 7:10 AM on October 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
So since there's a bad thing, let's make it worse?
Most people are trying to ensure that athletes are healthy, especially since there's a pipeline filled with vulnerable young people who are often willing to sacrifice their long-term health for a short-term shot at fame, a livelihood, their dream, etc. That's a clearly dangerous situation that's just ripe for exploitation, and one worth protecting people from.
In talks like this there's always the "let's just having a doping league" suggestion as if it's novel. Most sports don't, for very good reasons, and some that have come the closest - like cycling, with its 2ish decades of institutionalized ignorance - are rebounding the furthest from it.
posted by entropone at 7:10 AM on October 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
"Most people are trying to ensure that athletes are healthy, especially since there's a pipeline filled with vulnerable young people who are often willing to sacrifice their long-term health for a short-term shot at fame, a livelihood, their dream, etc. That's a clearly dangerous situation that's just ripe for exploitation, and one worth protecting people from. "
This is where everything goes gray for me. Until this thing happened, I didn't realize that a lot of these banned drugs were used to help recover from injuries as well as to prevent injuries. That was the biggest weirdness for me.
posted by I-baLL at 7:21 AM on October 4, 2016
This is where everything goes gray for me. Until this thing happened, I didn't realize that a lot of these banned drugs were used to help recover from injuries as well as to prevent injuries. That was the biggest weirdness for me.
posted by I-baLL at 7:21 AM on October 4, 2016
Yeah - doping, performance enhancing drugs, and sports medicine is full of grey areas. Yes, the types of drugs in this post (for which one can get a Theraputic Use Exemption) are medicines used to treat injuries, and also have other physiological benefits. Hell, lots of medicines that are allowed in-competition are definitely performance enhancing drugs - I take fluticasone and would be a much worse athlete without it (because I wouldn't be able to breathe), and a mild sleep aid helps recovery and makes me fresh for another day of competition.
But there are areas that are not grey. Some banned drugs - ones that are outright banned in a lot of sports - are in a whole other class. For example, EPO (popular in the 1990s and 2000s, formerly undetectable, makes your blood thick with red blood cells) could improve performance by 10-20%.
The allure of that made young, healthy athletes die in their sleep of heart attacks (source).
posted by entropone at 8:37 AM on October 4, 2016
But there are areas that are not grey. Some banned drugs - ones that are outright banned in a lot of sports - are in a whole other class. For example, EPO (popular in the 1990s and 2000s, formerly undetectable, makes your blood thick with red blood cells) could improve performance by 10-20%.
The allure of that made young, healthy athletes die in their sleep of heart attacks (source).
posted by entropone at 8:37 AM on October 4, 2016
Buddy you should read testimony from former soviet bloc athletes about how the steroids and medications have ruined their bodies and their lives. I wouldn't be too glib about it.
Seems to be a personal brand thing IMO
posted by aydeejones at 12:58 PM on October 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
Seems to be a personal brand thing IMO
posted by aydeejones at 12:58 PM on October 4, 2016 [2 favorites]
Surely if you have a medical condition that prevents you from taking part, you should never even be allowed to "compete professionally" by using huge doses of drugs to allay the symptoms.
Drugs are supposed to be used sparingly to allow a closer to normal life, not to create super athletes.
posted by Burn_IT at 3:34 PM on October 5, 2016
Drugs are supposed to be used sparingly to allow a closer to normal life, not to create super athletes.
posted by Burn_IT at 3:34 PM on October 5, 2016
I think we should do anything in our power to get us beyond normal human limits. Signed, a guy who used to want to amputate his limbs and get bionic ones instead of exercising.
In other words, I DID ask for this.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 5:48 PM on October 5, 2016
In other words, I DID ask for this.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 5:48 PM on October 5, 2016
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